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Back Alley Oproar
Back Alley Oproar is a 1948 Merrie Melodies short. The short features Sylvester and Elmer Fudd, voiced by Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan respectively. Title The title is a play on "uproar" and "opera." Plot Elmer is ready for bedtime, but Sylvester has other plans as he starts singing on the fence in Elmer's backyard. A series of gags play out, as Elmer tries everything up his sleeve to get rid of that unwanted pest. Elmer eventually confronts Sylvester, but before Elmer can blast him with his shotgun, Sylvester sings a sweet, gentle lullaby to ease him to dreams. However, this doesn't last, and the insanity continues… Elmer eventually dies from explosives from his attempts to get rid of Sylvester. He winds up in Heaven, as an angel on a cloud. Momentarily he thinks he will finally get some peace and quiet. However, the spirits of Sylvester's nine lives continue to sing as they ascend around him, each with a numeral on his back (there are actually more like 18 Sylvester's depicted overall), singing the sextet from "Lucia di Lammermoor". One of them even took Elmer's halo. The exasperated Elmer dives off his cloud and a crash is heard off-screen. Gallery Availability *DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2, Disc 4 (original opening and closing titles restored) Production The cartoon is a color remake of 1941's "Notes to You", also directed by Freleng. It has a similar plot (although the ending of the original doesn't have the characters die from an explosion; instead the cat dies from getting shot, and returns as nine singing angels), but the Elmer and Sylvester roles in "Notes to You" were taken by Porky Pig and an unnamed alley cat (the latter bearing a striking resemblance to the cat from Bob Clampett's "The Hep Cat"). "Back Alley Oproar" is notable in the Warner cartoon canon as one of the very few shorts in which Sylvester actually "wins out" over another character, albeit at the presumed cost of his life. Censorships *When this cartoon aired on the WB!, the three times Elmer runs down the steps (which are slippery from grease) and steps on tacks when trying to stop Sylvester from singing were cut. Pop culture and musical references * Sylvester starts his concert by singing Rossini's operatic piece "Largo al factotum" from The Barber of Seville, complete with sheet music on a music stand. He is bonked by one of Elmer's shoes just as he finishes a climactic "Fiii-gaaa-rooo!" * Sylvester evokes another classical staple as he sings "la-la-la, la-la-la..." to Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" while tromping in heavy boots, up and down Elmer's backstairs. * The cat sings "Some Sunday Morning" (by M.K. Jerome, Ray Heindorf and Ted Koehler) until being bonked again when Elmer throws a book titled The Thin Man at him, after which Sylvester throws a book called Return of The Thin Man at Elmer, who closes the window before the cat can finish. Then the phone rings (in a phone booth in Elmer's house), and the cat sings the final line through the phone. * Sylvester sings Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn's "You Never Know Where You're Goin' Till You Get There" (this song would be the opening music only a few weeks later in "Hop, Look and Listen"). * Elmer charges after Sylvester, interrupting that number, and Sylvester hands the sheet music to a dopey-looking cat before fleeing. The cat turns the music sheet every which way, and then begins singing an excerpt from the aria, "Carissima" (by Arthur A. Penn), in a classically operatic female voice. That song comes to a sudden end when Elmer whacks her over the head, and the cat and the song both fade out like a record slowing down. Then the cat staggers and falls off the porch roof, in rhythm to the tune's closing notes. * Confronted by Elmer and his shotgun, and a threat to "bwow him to smitheweens", Sylvester sings a variation of "Brahms' Lullaby" ("Go to sleep, go to sleep, close your big bloodshot eyes...") He then carries Elmer back to his bedroom and tucks him in, still singing until he finishes. He then kisses him on the cheek sweetly and walks out the door, turning off the lights. * Seconds later, the cat jolts Elmer awake by playing a fast-paced march "Frat", by John F. Barth, another frequent WB staple, on a one-man band apparatus. Elmer chases him again, and he runs out a door and closes it. Elmer opens the door and slams his head into another door labeled "Surprize!" (sic) * Sylvester rows a rowboat across the top of the fence, singing a jazzy version of Percy Wenrich and Edward Madden's "Moonlight Bay". Elmer puts out a saucer of milk, which he has laced with alum, and summons the cat. Sylvester dances to The Sailor's Hornpipe to reach the saucer, and carefully holds a cane and straw hat out to see if Elmer has the site booby-trapped. The cat slurps down the milk, hornpipes back to his fence, and resumes singing "Moonlight Bay" until the alum shrinks his head to the size of a ping-pong ball (another oft-used WB joke), while his voice speeds up to chipmunk-level. * Sylvester apes Spike Jones with his last solo number, "Angel in Disguise" (by Paul Mann, Stefan Weiss and Kim Gannon), which also foreshadows the film's conclusion. He performs in the manner of Jones' band, starting with a brief, serious-sounding introduction (apparently not Blanc's voice), immediately seguéing into a jazzy rendition featuring a collection of crazy sound effects produced by firing guns, breaking bottles, and exploding firecrackers. As with some of the other songs in the cartoon, Sylvester sings directly to the viewing audience (see illustration). Elmer caps the performance by lighting the fuse to a box full of dynamite -- which explodes instantly and kills Elmer and Sylvester. * As Sylvester's nine-plus lives soar past Elmer, singing together like a choir, they perform part of the sextet from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, which was used in the original "Notes To You" and is also recognizable from 1946's "Book Revue" - "You can't do dis to me / I'm a citizen, see" - and from 1949's "Long-Haired Hare". Trivia * Sylvester's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" was reused in Bugs Bunny's Overtures to Disaster. It used the same audio but the animation was new because Warner Brothers at the time did not have the rights to pre-August 1948 footage, although Warner still has the cartoon's original negatives stored in the vaults (the publishing rights to the music track were owned separately by Warner/Chappell Music). * The Tom and Jerry short by Chuck Jones, "The Cat Above and the Mouse Below", had a similar concept but with a different plot. * "Kit For Cat" and this cartoon share the same night city title card. Coincidentally, both original title cards were cut in 1955. The original opening and credits for this cartoon and the former were restored on DVD, this one on Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2, Disc 4 and the former on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1, Disc 4, however, "Kit For Cat", for unknown reasons has the Blue Ribbon ending. *Also, this cartoon was reissued in the 1954-55 season. Since this was a Merrie Melodie, and IN TECHNICOLOR, the original end title was kept. The cartoon was shown in Blue Ribbon form from 1956-present on TV, although present-day airings air the Blue Ribbon, 1995 dubbed version, which uses the 1948 end title with a dubbed notice. Category:Merrie Melodies shorts Category:Looney Tunes Category:Looney Tunes shorts Category:Elmer Fudd shorts Category:Sylvester shorts Category:Sylvester Category:Elmer Fudd Category:Sylvester and Elmer shorts Category:Merrie Melodies Category:Directed by Friz Freleng Category:1940s shorts Category:1940s Category:Vitaphone short films Category:Shorts Category:Films Category:Animated shorts Category:Warner Bros. Animation Category:Warner Bros. Cartoons Category:Warner Bros. shorts Category:1948 films Category:1948 shorts Category:Blue Ribbon Category:Blue Ribbon shorts Category:Best Short Academy Award winners Category:Best Short Academy Award nominees Category:Cartoons directed by Friz Freleng Category:1948 Category:Story by Michael Maltese Category:Written by Michael Maltese Category:Cartoons written by Michael Maltese Category:Story by Tedd Pierce Category:Cartoons written by Tedd Pierce Category:Story by Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce Category:Written by Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce Category:Cartoons written by Tedd Pierce and Michael Maltese Category:Animation by Gerry Chiniquy Category:Animated by Gerry Chiniquy Category:Cartoons animated by Gerry Chiniquy Category:Animation by Manuel Perez Category:Animated by Manuel Perez Category:Cartoons animated by Manuel Perez Category:Animation by Ken Champin Category:Animated by Ken Champin Category:Cartoons animated by Ken Champin Category:Animation by Virgil Ross Category:Animated by Virgil Ross Category:Cartoons animated by Virgil Ross Category:Layouts by Hawley Pratt Category:Backgrounds by Paul Julian Category:Cartoon layouts by Hawley Pratt Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Paul Julian Category:Film Editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects by Treg Brown Category:Voice Characterizations by Mel Blanc Category:Voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Voices by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons with voices by Mel Blanc Category:Voice Characterizations by Arthur Q. Bryan Category:Voiced by Arthur Q. Bryan Category:Voices by Arthur Q. Bryan Category:Cartoons with voices by Arthur Q. Bryan Category:Music by Carl Stalling Category:Musical Direction by Carl Stalling Category:Cartoons with music by Carl Stalling Category:1940s films